The Moz/Smiths Top 100, Part 153: SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

How do you rate Shoplifters Of The World Unite?


  • Total voters
    158

Houdini

Junior Member
Let's compile our own Morrissey/Smiths Top 100 by rating all 232 Moz/Smiths-songs.

And yet another Smiths-single:
Song for Today: SHOPLIFTERS OF THE WORLD UNITE

Voting should be something along these lines:
10: Perfection
9: Near perfect, brilliant
8: Really good Moz/Smiths song
7: Good Moz/Smiths song
6: Decent, OK, Nothing special
5: Uninspired
4: Poor
3: Bad
2: Should never have been released
1: He/They should be ashamed

The songs so far (voting is still open):

Part 152: Sheila Take A Bow
Part 151: Shakespeare's Sister
Part 150: Seasick Yet Still Docked
Part 149: Satan Rejected My Soul
Part 148: Rusholme Ruffians
Part 147: Rubber Ring
Part 146: Roy's Keen
Part 145: Reel Around The Fountain
Part 144: Redondo Beach
Part 143: Reader Meet Author
Part 142: Pretty Girls Make Graves
Part 141: Pregnant For The Last Time
Part 140: Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
Part 139: Piccadilly Palare
Part 138: Pashernate Love
Part 137: Papa Jack
Part 136: Panic
Part 135: Paint A Vulgar Picture
Part 134: Our Frank
Part 133: Ouija Board, Ouija Board
Part 132: Oscillate Wildly
Part 131: On The Streets I Ran
Part 130: Oh Well, I'll Never Learn
Part 129: Nowhere Fast
Part 128: Now My Heart Is Full
Part 127: Now I Am A Was
Part 126: November Spawned A Monster
Part 125: Noise Is The Best Revenge
Part 124: Nobody Loves Us
Part 123: No One Can Hold A Candle To You
Part 122: Never Had No One Ever
Part 121: My Love Life
Part 120: My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye
Part 119: Mute Witness
Part 118: Munich Air Disaster 1958
Part 117: Moonriver
Part 116: Money Changes Everything
Part 115: Miserable Lie
Part 114: Michael's Bones
Part 113: Mexico
Part 112: Meat Is Murder
Part 111: Margaret On The Guillotine
Part 110: Maladjusted
Part 109: Lucky Lisp
Part 108: Lost
Part 107: London
Part 106: Little Man, What Now?
Part 105: Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning
Part 104: Life Is A Pigsty
Part 103: Let the Right One Slip In
Part 102: Let Me Kiss You
Part 101: Late Night, Maudlin Street
Part 100: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Part 99: King Leer
Part 98: Journalists Who Lie
Part 97: Jeane
Part 96: Jack The Ripper
Part 95: It's Hard To Walk Tall When You're Small
Part 94: Is It Really So Strange?
Part 93: Irish Blood, English Heart
Part 92: Interlude
Part 91: Interesting Drug
Part 90: In The Future When All's Well
Part 89: If You Don't Like Me, Don't Look At Me
Part 88: I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
Part 87: (I'm) The End Of The Family Line
Part 86: I'm Not Sorry
Part 85: I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now
Part 84: I'd Love To
Part 83: I Won't Share You
Part 82: I Will See You In Far Off Places
Part 81: I Want The One I Can't Have
Part 80: I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
Part 79: I Like You
Part 78: I Know Very Well How I Got My Name
Part 77: I Know It's Over
Part 76: I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday
Part 75: I Knew I Was Next
Part 74: I Keep Mine Hidden
Part 73: I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
Part 72: I Have Forgiven Jesus
Part 71: I Don't Owe You Anything
Part 70: I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
Part 69: I Can Have Both
Part 68: I Am Two People
Part 67: I Am Hated For Loving
Part 66: Human Being
Part 65: How Soon Is Now?
Part 64: How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
Part 63: Hold On To Your Friends
Part 62: Heir Apparent
Part 61: Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Part 60: He Knows I'd Love To See Him
Part 59: He Cried
Part 58: Have-A-Go Merchant
Part 57: Handsome Devil
Part 56: Hand In Glove
Part 55: Half A Person
Part 54: Hairdresser On Fire
Part 53: Good Looking Man About Town
Part 52: Golden Lights
Part 51: Glamorous Glue
Part 50: Girlfriend In A Coma
Part 49: Girl Least Likely To
Part 48: Girl Afraid
Part 47: Get Off The Stage
Part 46: Ganglord
Part 45: Friday Mourning
Part 44: Frankly Mr Shankly
Part 43: Found Found Found
Part 42: First Of The Gang To Die
Part 41: Everyday Is Like Sunday (follow link for first 40 songs)
 
The studio version never grabbed me...

Live....Morrissey has the made the song HIS ANTHEM

So, The Smiths Version would get an 8 from me...

Morrissey's Live Performances would get a 10...

So a 9 overall
 
BIG 9! Tried living in the real world instead of a shell but before I began I was bored before I even began.

Ah, my song =o) I began (and ended) my shoplifting when I was 12. Busted for stealing some Hello Kitty stuff from Claire's and then sunglasses from 'Monkey' Wards. A listed crime? I dunno bout dat but my Dad sure had my #...put a photo of me w/a jailbird # on my BR door, grounded me for weeks, I was forbidden to hang with my girlfriend 'from the wrong side of the tracks', had to return the mdse and apologize to both stores... oh well never mind never mind...
 
BIG 9! Tried living in the real world instead of a shell but before I began I was bored before I even began.

Ah, my song =o) I began (and ended) my shoplifting when I was 12. Busted for stealing some Hello Kitty stuff from Claire's and then sunglasses from 'Monkey' Wards. A listed crime? I dunno bout dat but my Dad sure had my #...put a photo of me w/a jailbird # on my BR door, grounded me for weeks, I was forbidden to hang with my girlfriend 'from the wrong side of the tracks', had to return the mdse and apologize to both stores... oh well never mind never mind...

Nice share Corrissey, I think this song deeply touches pre-adolescent "shoplifters" as well as having multiple deeper meanings.
 
It's superb.

Plus the video on TOTP makes me want to peel off Morrissey's clothing and do extremely naughty things :D

As such, an undeniable 10
 
Nice share Corrissey, I think this song deeply touches pre-adolescent "shoplifters" as well as having multiple deeper meanings.

There are multiple deeper meanings? Crud, I'll have to listen again....

Plus the video on TOTP makes me want to peel off Morrissey's clothing and do extremely naughty things :D

Please wait until you're over your cold, as previously discussed.
 
There are multiple deeper meanings? Crud, I'll have to listen again....



Please wait until you're over your cold, as previously discussed.

Hmm, even recovered, I can't time travel 21 years unfortunately :p
 
There are multiple deeper meanings? Crud, I'll have to listen again....



Please wait until you're over your cold, as previously discussed.

Hi Alcoholic Afternoons, sorry to be so vague. I guess the lasid website commentary is a bit more specific:
"In many ways, this song epitomises the greatness of middle-era Smithdom. Morrissey's call to arms of the world's disenfranchised is supplemented by one of Marr's best compositions of the era, with a rumbling ominous backing underneath Morrissey's plaintive but demanding vocal.
Morrissey is clearly referring to homosexuality in the line "My only weakness is well ... never mind, never mind." Referring to a film starring a gay icon, his description of this "weakness" as a crime is surely intended to place this song in the chronology of the sixties, when homosexuality was first decriminalised in the UK. This is backed up by the mock-revolutionary lyrics urging the Shoplifters to "Unite and take over !".
Jason Little gives a different interpretation of the song :
Clause 28 was a Maggie Thatcher invention during the mid-late eighties to stop the "promotion" of homosexuality and other "alternative lifestyles"; this meant that such things as plays, books and other media or arts related things were not allowed to promote alternative lifestyles (sounds unbelievable, but quite true), for example libraries could be prosecuted for holding books which specifically promoted such things.
"I follow her career," Morrissey says. "Obviously, I find the entire Thatcher syndrome very stressful and evil and all those other words. But I think there's very little that people can do about it. The most perfect example, I suppose, is Clause 28. I think that absolutely embodies Thatcher's very nature and her quite natural hatred."
I still believe that's what he was referring to in Shoplifters. The part about Channel 4 covering a future war could be to do with Clause 28 being overlooked in the channel's news, which I think was around the same time. Maybe the whole song is inspired by this Clause as it ties in with the line "...a listed crime".
 
raquel, that's cool! i always assumed there was some other meaning besides just mentioning shoplifters haha but i could never realize what it was.

i would give this a fourteen if i could, since it's my favourite number and this is one of my favourite songs ever and all hahaha so

10 :D
 
Again, as with 'Sheila', another 'out' anthem and possibly his best lyric ever about the love that dare not speak its name, the 'listed crime'. I can't hear the line 'I was bored before I even began' without having a smile to myself. Who else could deliver such a rallying-call lyric on peak-time Top Of The Pops while doing the campest of pelvic shimmies during Marr's guitar break? My all-time favourite TOTP moment. This song reminds me of everything vile about Thatcher and the Clause 28 legislation.
 
a 10

[yes this is rare for me, but we are is in the S, which means 3 more 10's
Suffer little children/Sunny/Speedway, and we didn't even start with the T and W,
so there will come lots 9,10's in the future when all's well from me]

Classic Smiths single, legendary lyrics, briliant composed
Minor point is that this song is also not really ranked as a Smiths classic
but should be

finest lines are ofcourse

a hardless hand on my shoulder
push and it's over
alabaster crashes down
six month is a long time
tried living in a real world
instead of a shell
but before I began
I was bored before I even began
 
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I love this song. My dad often tells me that this song was inspired by a scene in the film King Creole. The scene where Elvis plays the Guitar and sings so his friends can steal stuff from the store, hence why Elvis is on the front of the single. Anyone know anything about this??
 
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